Vets push for Mount Clemens training center

A developer with plans to turn the former Macomb Daily building in downtown Mount Clemens into a veterans housing and training center said city officials are stalling the project because of the perceived type of clientele it would attract.

“I don’t think the city wants this project,” said Larry Goss, CEO of Trillacorpe Construction prior to a City Commission meeting Monday night. “I think they envision a more glamorous project. It’s shameful, frankly.”

Goss’ Bingham Farms company, along with Shelby Township developer George Adams, Bingham Farms development company Burton-Katzman, www.vetpower.org and a to-be-determined nonprofit group, want to transform the vacant, seven-story structure on Cass Avenue into affordable housing and training for veterans.

The development group is seeking funds through a Michigan State Housing Development Authority program and are asking the city to approve a program called Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) in which the group would make payments typically at 4 to 10 percent of the rental payments. PILOT status would give the project a better chance of approval for the MSHDA program that would allow the group to sell federal tax credits to help raise money for the project. The project would involve about $4 million to $5 million, Adams said.

Goss and Adams were joined by about a dozen veterans supporters at the commission meeting. A handful spoke in support of the project at the public comment portion of the agenda in light of the city failing to place the matter on the agenda.

Goss said the stalling is a smokescreen to thwart the project.

Before Monday’s meeting, Mayor Barb Demspsey denied the city is dragging its feet, but said its accountants at Plante Moran need more time to study information submitted by the group.

City commissioners did not respond to the comments from supporters since it was not an agenda item.

Among those speaking in support was Mike Sand, president of the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 9, who said veterans of the more recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan returning to civilian life need support that many Vietnam veterans never received when they returned home.

“Our motto is ‘Never again,’” Sand told commissioners. “Never again will one group of veterans turn their back on another group.”

Veteran Walter Papciak of Fraser added, “Those coming back who don’t have family to help them out, where do they go?”

“Most of veterans coming home right now are finding the economy is still weak so jobs are not easy to find a job,” Goss said before the meeting. “And if they do find a job it’s not paying what it should right now, and so that makes housing a problem. Because they can’t afford some of the housing rates being charged right now.”

Goss also pleaded with commissioners “to be on the right side of history” and “do the right thing.”

Adams insisted the city would lose no or little tax revenues for the project.

“This is not a freebie. They will get their taxes,” Adams said.

He noted the residents would pay rent.

“These are not homeless people; they will be working,” he said.

Currently, the total property tax bill for the building is about $52,000, according to the city’s assessing department.

The project would involve five floors containing 70 units. The first floor would contain retail outlets where vets would work to gain experience to find a more permanent job, and the second floor would serve as a training center to acquire new skills.

The old Macomb Daily building has been vacant since 1994. Adams purchased it in 1995 and has had a smattering of tenants. Several projects have fallen through.

Adams said he and his wife, Isabelle, has invested more than $1.5 million over the years with very little return.